Patience and Impermanence November 20, 2011
Posted by nrhatch in Happiness, Less IS More, Life Balance, Mindfulness.trackback
Patience and impermanence go hand in hand.
Once we realize that we can only LIVE in the present moment . . . our impatience to get somewhere else disappears.
We are content to Be Here Now. In THIS moment.
We no longer WAIT in lines or GET STUCK in traffic. We enjoy each moment as it unfolds before us.
The grass no longer seems greener on the other side of the fence. We are fully present in everything that is offered HERE and NOW.
We see that self-created suffering is rooted in the frantic desire to attain something other than what we already have . . .
But nothing lasts.
So what’s the rush?
Enjoy THIS moment.
Instead of striving to reach some distant shore, we become fully engaged HERE and NOW. We enjoy the journey as each moment unfolds into the next.
Be patient. Life is stirred with a slow spoon.
All things must pass.
We are HERE and it is NOW.
What else is there?
Aah . . . that’s better.
Related post: Connecting with the Here and Now
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Spirit Lights The Way 
Aah…that is better…so true. I needed this timely reminder.
Same here. Being fully present is such a GIFT . . . as inner peace and joy surface amidst the chaos and confusion. 😀
The right thoughts are in my head but I don’t always get the ‘ahh’ feeling. Hmmm
Actually, I’m feeling a bit that way myself today, Chris. I’m “in the moment,” but feeling restless. And “my bliss” is no where in sight.
“Life is stirred with a slow spoon.” Lovely and true, Nancy.
Sometimes we get what we want faster by standing still than we do by racing hither and yon.
I agree with Andra – I love the slow spoon line. I am here and it is now.
I’ve been reading The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle (for the first time). I’m HERE. It’s NOW. But it feels like something is missing. Instead of the “peace” I usually experience in the NOW, I feel at odds.
Note to self: Be patient. Accept the what is. Wait for the future to unfold. 😉
How completely true – thanks.
I know it is . . . but I’m used to “bubbling with bliss” when I “press pause.” And today my bliss is no where to be found. It’s a bit disconcerting.
Life is stirred with a slow spoon. LOVE that line, and it looks like I’m not the only one. 🙂
Maybe that my problem . . . I’m “impatient” for “bliss” to appear so it’s playing hide and seek to remind me to stir more slowly. 😉
An utterly brilliant post: and strangely I have come to this conclusion with friends this very week. Celebrate each moment!
The more willing we are to accept this moment and all that it offers . . . the more easily we access our inner peace.
Even in the midst of chaos and confusion. Even when we are sad, we feel peace within.
“Life is stirred with a slow spoon”, how perfect and very true. If one comes to think of it, when we plant a seed it takes time for it to sprout. It is the human mind that is always in a rush. I enjoyed reading this!
Thanks, Marie. When we are rushing to get from where we are to where we want to be, we get frustrated and flustered if it takes “too long.” Focused on the destination, we lose our connection to the moment at hand. We’re like kids on a road trip, constantly asking, “Are we there yet?”
When we remember to enjoy the journey, we relax back into the moment . . . and sidestep the unreasonable expectations and run-away thoughts that are adding to our self-created suffering.
Yeh, but what do you do when the here and now is not a good place to be. Sitting on an airplane that was tilting side-to-side trying to land in an unexpected midwestern hurricane comes to mind. People were crying and throwing up. I thought the plane was going to flip upside down and it would be all over.
Not a good place to be.
The fact that you survived the experience demonstrates that your thoughts, rather than the situation itself, created much of your inner turmoil ~ you and others on the plane pictured “the worst that could happen” and added to your suffering by the thoughts you were thinking.
Your “thoughts” judged the situation as lacking and “not a good place to be.” Instead of accepting the “what is,” you resisted it.
I expect that there were people on the same flight who accepted the situation and remained calm in the midst of chaos. That doesn’t mean they enjoyed the experience or would have chosen the experience. It just means they “accepted what they could not change” (the situation) and changed what they could (their thoughts about the situation).
How we relate to the issue IS the issue.
To give you another example: I was not “happy” about having a tumor that required surgery (just as no one would be “happy” to be on a plane that might crash), but I was HAPPY.
I accepted the “what is.” Rather than resisting something I could not change, I chose to enjoy LIFE while I waited.
You are so right – it’s our impatience that makes life not happy. I found that I got most impatient standing in long lines or stuck in traffic. Now, I bring a book with me in case I’m stuck waiting and I’ve got tons of music I can listen to during my commute. Funny….none of it bothers me so much anymore!
When we first moved here, the drawbridge to the island went up just as we reached it. BFF automatically sighed at the undesired delay. I burst out laughing because the view from the bridge was breathtaking . . . the PERFECT place to “get stuck.”
Even in less scenic surroundings, standing in line gives me a chance to “breathe, relax, and repeat” so I rarely feel impatience while “waiting.”
Nancy, this is a very unpopular thing to say about our Mr. Tolle, but there’s a lot of intellectualizing to get to the feeling of “now” in his teachings. I’m delighted that he has written his books, but his teachings still leave people analyzing and intellectualizing. If you have a good feeling, like compassion, joy, fulfillment, etc., you are in the “now”. You are closer to Divinity than you can ever be while we are in these bodies.
By feeling my feelings, I am firmly in my inner “now”. My job is to remember to go there and feel the gifts we’ve been given – love, peace, bliss, joy… My teacher tells me I can trust I’m “there” when I bubble with gratitude for the feeling.
I actually live that on occasion. Until I forget! 😀
Oh, I agree. His underlying message is rather simple:
Quiet the Ego mind
Stop passing judgment
Accept the “What is”
Be Here Now
Throughout the book, he encourages readers to feel the joy of being:
* “When the compulsive striving away from the Now ceases, the joy of Being flows into everything you do.”
* The moment your attention turns to the Now, you feel a presence, a stillness, a peace.”
Much of the intellectualizing in the book is in response to the “students’ questions” as they resist the basic message by arguing that:
* they can’t still their minds
* they can’t stop thinking
* they don’t want to accept the what is because “the present moment is sometimes unacceptable, unpleasant, or awful.”
I was not happy to be driving or I should riding through a long, long back country road and then the interstate in the fog in the dark tonight on the way home from an early thanksgiving. It felt like playing Russian Rulette.
Yup. Sometimes we are in situations that don’t appeal to us . . . but shaking our fist at the sky rarely stops the rain from falling.
If we accept what we cannot change (the situation) and change what we can (our thoughts about the situation), our inner peace and calm is restored.
We gain clarity about how to act when we are fully present in the situation rather than “lost in thought.”
Then again I was happy to not be walking on that road either. 🙂
Either way, glad you’re home safe and sound! 😀
Me too!
I am living according to this advice at present and am basking in ‘now’ 🙂
Same here. Every time I notice slight resistance to the “what is” . . . I back up, accept the “what is” and then calmly decide how to act in response.
For example, someone called me this morning and I started thinking . . . I wish they hadn’t called . . . I don’t want to call them back . . . RESISTANCE. I backed up and accepted the “what is” . . . they called. No whining or moaning will change that. Then I calmly and peacefully decided how to respond . . . I e-mailed them back. 😉
On with the dance!
If only we all knew this. Too many people will be too busy to read it.
Well, the information is out there . . . everywhere. When the “busy bees” are ready, the Universe will direct them to the book/teacher that will open their eyes.
For now, just be.
Glad that I finally caught up on your blog in the here and NOW! Phew! 🙂
I’m delighted that you take the time to catch up with all our posts, but don’t overdo it, E! Enjoy!
Aaah yes! Have you ever noticed when we’re in a hurry to get some where that as soon as we get there we’re ready to move on, in a hurry to go somewhere else. I’m enjoying taking the time to enjoy the time…ha, like that one?!
Yes! We’re in a rush to write the book, then find an agent, then get the book published, then market the book, then monitor its sales, then write the next book, then . . . it’s an exhausting and constant striving to be somewhere else. So we are perpetually dissatisfied and stressed.
As soon as we realize that we can only LIVE in the NOW, we start to reconnect with the moment at hand.
We might still write the book . . . but we enjoy the process. We might still look for an agent . . . but rejection doesn’t bite back. It is what it is. We might still enjoy seeing our book in print . . . but we know those feelings of pleasure won’t last. We might still spend time marketing our effort, but we don’t obsess over the numbers. Etc.
In the Now, we enter the flow of life and accept things as they are in this moment . . . knowing they will pass away in short order.
Hi Nancy….hope you’re back into that more positive flow again.
I’ve been thinking lots about the difference between the “language” of the word now….the label of it…and the experience of “now”….and also the difference between that more thinking mode of now and that softer, more experiential sense of just “being”….for me there seems to be a significant difference. I think I’ll be having a few weeks of watching, noticing, being, relaxing into it and realigning…or, more likely, a lifetime of that… : )
Actually, I am fully present in the flow of the NOW (and have been all day) . . . but I feel very shaky and agitated.
I am watching, noticing, and accepting the feeling of shakiness and believe that it is the release of negativity trapped over a lifetime of resistance to the “what is” (or the “what was”).
In other words, it’s toxic waste, sludge, and tension that’s been stored and is finally coming to the surface so I can release it once and for all.
Either that, or I’m sick. 😉
When we’re really in the NOW, we are in the state of experiential BEING. We feel the water as we wash our hands. We feel the tiles on the bottom of our feet. We feel the resistance as the phone rings and we do NOT want to answer it . . . 😆
We are present with the present . . . instead of being pulled into our thoughts and judgments about what is happening.
Be Here Now!
I understand…I have similar reactions and situations, as we probably all do. I know you know this, but try to have as much patience….tolerance…compassion toward yourself as you can muster up. I wish you well and hope that you get through this as soon as possible.
Thanks, Kathy. I “Let it Be” and it seems to be dissipating. I spent the afternoon reading The Alchemist by Paula Coelho.
Fascinating story . . . traveling around the world to discover treasure, while gathering wisdom along the way. 😀
I’ve never looked at it quite in that way before, Nancy. Thank you!
When we relax into the NOW, accepting the “what is” without resistance and negativity, we gain clarity.
We stop wasting energy to control what is outside our control and mindfully choose the best response to what is happening around us right Here and Now. When we cease our frantic striving to be somewhere else in TIME, peace floods our being.
As John Lennon once said, “Let it be.”
Thanks, Nancy. I needed that reminder today. Unexpected bills kinda threw me into a panic place for a while. I needed the reminder that it will pass and that NOW is the most important time. Hopefully, this will be the last time, as we should soon have one less full-time student (Mr O) and have two salaries, so I will be able to breath easier.
Thoughts are responsible for 90% of our suffering ~ we create “worst case scenarios” and get flooded with negativity and resistance.
When we accept the “what is” without resistance, we can mindfully choose the best response to situations which arise.
living NOW can be so hard sometimes
Our Egoic mind doesn’t deal well with the NOW . . . because the NOW is experiential. When we’re LIVING in the moment, we don’t need the Ego to hang around and pass judgment, make comparisons, or compete with others.
The Ego wants “job security” so does everything it can to pull us out of the NOW into the future or the past.
I truly enjoy being in the slow lane…it gives me time to take in my surroundings! Great post!
And, when we do need to “get a move on it” and kick it into high gear for a time . . . we’re not already exhausted from worrying incessantly about This, That, and The Other Thing!
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